tamarack

After several hours under echoes but no flakes, we can now count them as they drift by. Since even one flake gets a "T", getting 20 flakes is the same.

Yesterday's event finished with 6.2" with 0.92" LE, nice 6.5-1 ratio, further thickened by 0.10" of marginally freezing rain that mostly soaked into the pack. Tough going for the snowblower. Had that 1"+ LE been 12" pow, the work would've been much easier. Probably enough now for the groomer to work the trail thru our woodlot without breaking things on the rocks. Sad when it's Jan 18 before there's enough snow to safely run that machine. Now only 13" BN here.

Measured 5.7" at 1 PM with gritty S-, but the rate/flakes have improved since then. Temp into the upper 20s, an 8° climb in the past 3 hours. Edit: Changed to light rain just before 2. The 6.2" final (unless the ULL produces later) had 0.92" LE. The 6.5-to-1 ratio fits right in with last year's lowest by far average ratio. Note: The "970mb" I posted earlier should've been 980. Lowest I've seen is 979 at St. Johnsbury and most sites outside N Maine are starting upward or will soon.

Measured 5.7" at 1 PM with gritty S-, but the rate/flakes have improved since then. Temp into the upper 20s, an 8° climb in the past 3 hours. Edit: Checked the offshore winds and Mount Desert Rock was 55/65 kt - Cat 1 gusts. Some VT/NH sites at 970 mb, still falling.

Decent. Snow began about 6 and by 9 we'd had only 1/2". By 10 it was about 2" - easily the heaviest rate this season. GYX overnight shift backed the yesterday afternoon forecast from 8-12 to 5-9. Some siggy forecast differences over relatively short distances: Farmington 7-11, Skowhegan 3-7 barely 20 miles distant and slightly farther north.

Broadleaf woody plants like those azaleas and hollies should sprout vigorously, unless they were looking sickly this past summer. If the critters eat your small arborvitae (if you have one) to below the lowest green branch, it's cooked.

Those would be my NNJ picks, though 2/61 would be first due to taller pack (thanks to the 1/19-20 storm and smaller events) and much more wind/drifting. Bangor: 4/3-5/75 Fort Kent: 4/7-8/82 2nd place: 3/14-15/84 Gardiner: No truly memorable snowstorms in 13 winters, so 1/8-10/98 instead, but with my 13kw Generac down there and ready to go. New Sharon: Actually experienced, 12/6-7/03. Missed it by one day, 1/27-28/15. Got home from SNJ ~12 hours after final flakes.

Low about -5 here as the roaring wind kept things fully mixed. Good rad tonight and we aim at -20.

06-07 would work for NNE. We had 78.5" here after Jan 15 (and 5" more on the 15th) and only 00-01 had more for that period - 98". 16-17 was close, only 0.4" behind 06-07.

10 miles from 12"+ and 20 miles from 1" or less.

So far this season: 16.3". Average ytd: 33.2". Yup, a bit BN.

Shortly after than storm some college kids jumped the out-of-bounds markers to ski (or ride, or both - can't recall) the back side of the mountain. They soon ran into dense spruce-fir forest, unskiable by anything bigger than a red squirrel. They took off the boards and sank chin deep, and after some floundering thru it, called 911. They came out okay, but I think they got billed for the rescue costs, appropriately.

As I was driving home on the snowy afternoon of 3/31/97, forecasters in Maine were predicting an SNE paste bomb for the next day. (We were toward the end of 7.5" from a different system.) I'll never again see a positive bust like April 1982. CAR forecast of 20s/windy/flurries the evening of 4/6 turned into 26.3", their biggest on record at the time and still in 4th place. Nice late shift to the west! Sugarloaf 4/17/07 snow has no problem accumulating with a high sun angle if it snows hard enough. Only 5.2" here but also 5" cold RA. 16th had 35/31 with 3.38" precip and 1.2" snow. No surprise the 'Loaf got bombed, especially near the summit.

Hasn't got past the low 20s here, though temp just reached its highest so far. Heading for yet another obs time max?

GYX afternoon discussion hinted at a warm nose possibly as far inland as here on Monday, though it also said that Mts/foothills would be mostly snow. Plenty of time for the track to move in either direction. Ice circle has formed in Westbrook on the Presumscot River, same place as the oft-photographed one in 2018.

Each of the past 4 days has had the max at/near my 9 PM obs time - 10th was at 10 PM. 9th-12th at the end of the obs day and 10-11 at the beginning. 11-12 each had a mean of -0.5. (8/-9 and 14/-15) With today's 0.1" dusting were at 16.3", only 50.3% of average ytd. Still early but I've not had 2 ratters in a row here, yet.

A reprise of Jan 2-3, 1987 would be wonderful, especially if its beginning was as odd as that one. PWM reported snow by 4 AM and outside my Augusta office it arrived about 12:30. Then, after taking 8+ hour to advance 55 miles to the northeast, it went from first flakes to <1/4 mile visibility in less than 60 seconds. Other than in squalls, that's the quickest I've seen first flake to S+. Dumped 16.0" at my (then) Gardiner home, 2nd only to 12/20-21/95 in my 13 winters there.

That was last month here - seven grandkids tracking up the snow for a week, unfortunately some wanted a close look at my snow stake. All was forgiven. Now their footprints are mummified in IP/ZR.

A bit surprising that anywhere in NNE decoupled, though those 2 river valley sites would have the best chance. At 8 AM on a hilltop, FVE was -17 with WCI -39. Stayed mixed here at -9 with a nasty little breeze. If the clouds were to stay away until sunrise tomorrow, BBR and Estcourt Station might drop well into the -30s. Forecasts say no.

1.5 here. Only 2 events above 1.6 so far, 2.8 and 4.8. Not yet as patience-requiring as 04-05, when we made it thru Feb 9 w/o a 4" event (while watching SNE get buried in late Jan.) Then got 60" in the next 31 days, beginning with a 21" dump with some thunder.

4" here and nearly 4 feet in BGR? Fortunately, nothing like that will happen.

Grandkids had 2 storms this week in SNJ, each a bit bigger than any I've seen this season. That's OK as they love snow; were out in it every day but the rainy 12/22 during their visit here.

Probably the north side of Fundy did a lot better. Several Maine sites near the NB border reported over a foot.

An amazing month though the coldest (-25 on 2/24) is tied for 16th coldest here and only 1° below the median for winter's bottom. It was the unending cold more than daily records that was the key feature. We got above freezing for just 3-4 hours, on a Sunday afternoon, and the mildest minima were 5/4/1/1/0/0, with 22 subzero mornings, 6 at -20 or colder.

Another midgit, maybe - GYX has qpf trace to 0.05".